Law&Crime Sidebar - Man Caught Dumping ‘Large Object’ in Dumpster Where Headless Torso Found

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Authorities have charged Samuel Haskell IV, the son of an A-list Hollywood agent, with murdering his wife and in-laws. Not long after Mei Li Haskell and her parents were reported missing, a scavenger found body parts in a dumpster just miles from the Haskells’ southern California home. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber analyzes what new surveillance video means for the case with retired FBI agent Bobby ChaconHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The son of a Hollywood agent is accused of murdering his wife and in-laws who are missing. And it sure doesn't help that there's surveillance footage that maybe captures him dumping a body. We're going to take a closer look at the case with retired FBI agent, Bobby Chacon. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Could the son of a prominent Hollywood agent be a killer? Quite the question, and it's one that we're focusing on right now, because 35-year-old Sam Haskell, sometimes referred to as Sam

Haskell IV, or Sam Haskell Jr., has been arrested. And he's now charged with three counts of murder, those of his missing wife, May Lee, and her mother and father, her parents were living with the couple along with their children, and his home in Tarzana, California, is now a crime scene, and the children have been removed from the home while police investigate. Haskell's father was a longtime A-list talent agent who represented stars like George Clooney and Whoopi Goldberg and Dolly Parton. He went on to become an Emmy-winning producer for TV movies. Haskell appears to have made his own low-budget slasher movies, often starring a himself with various weapons.

Now, the reason Haskell was arrested is pretty chilling because it involves surveillance footage. And to discuss this, let me bring in retired FBI agent and attorney Bobby Chaconne. Bobby, what a story. I'd like to start with the timeline here and we'll build it up and we'll get to the surveillance footage. And by the way, I should tell everybody, charged with murder potentially could face the death penalty here.

We'll get to that. So before we get to the surveillance footage, there was apparently a call into the LAPD about human remains. And you come to find out that gay laborers who spoke with local NBC4 said that they had been hired by Haskell to carry three large bags away from the Haskell home. And they claimed that the bags were soggy and they felt weird. And they opened them up and there were body parts. So the men allegedly told Haskell they wouldn't take them away. They gave the money back. They left the bags in the driveway. He had said that they were Halloween props. Police arrive. bags are found and they said that there wasn't enough evidence that would warrant them

entering the home let's start right at that point your reaction um shock you know i think that you know when you ever you have uh you know people that say these were body parts you know and are concerned enough and the police get called i mean how much more effort does it take to simply say we want to do a welfare check on anyone inside the house who lives here with you oh my wife my in-laws and my three kids. Well, you have that, that's six other people in the house. You have at least an allegation of possible body parts. I mean, I don't think it would take much effort to go to that extra step and say, well, do you mind if we do a welfare check? Can we speak to your wife? Can we speak to your kids or your in-laws or whatever?

So I think, you know, the convincing story, I know, we just passed Halloween last couple of weeks ago. And, you know, so that kind of fits his narrative, if that's what he put forth to the cops. But I think that, you know, I think the officers probably could have taken the next step, but just did a simple welfare check on anybody in the house. I have to tell you, I find it very odd, if this is true, if he could have moved the bags himself, and trust me, we're going to get to that in a minute, the fact that he would hire outside people that would not look in the bags or not question what's going on and outsource it when he can do it himself

because clearly as we're about to get into he did something himself or he allegedly did something himself why bring other people into the mix if you just committed triple murder yeah I don't know if he like picked these guys up in a Home Depot parking up which we often see like day laborers

and sometimes they're undocumented people so they don't want to contact more enforcement I don't know what that situation was but it's bizarre that you'd have somebody because look I've dealt with dismembered victim And if you pick up a bag with a human leg in it, you know it's a human leg. I mean, it doesn't take much to feel the heft of it and the shape of it.

There are very few things either in nature or even in manmade things that approximate a human being other than a mannequin. And so when you feel the softness of it, and like you said, as you describe, the wetness and things, I mean, that's a human body part. I've held human body parts in my hand in bags and not in bags. It's a very unique, distinct item. And for you to outsource that to somebody else thinking they're not going to figure it out is bizarre. Yeah. And so, I mean, just to not get too graphic, but you could tell it's not a movie prop, right? I mean, there's a certain feeling to that, Bobby, right?

You know that you're dealing with something else. You can tell us not a mannequin. Yeah. Like I said, a mannequin might, but you would know the difference between a mannequin and a human leg. Absolutely. And that's why you got to give credit to them and making this 911 phone call leaving it, you know, returning the money, I mean, credit to them from doing that because if they had taken it, that could have been a different story. I mean, again, we still don't know where the parents

are. And we'll get to that in a second. So the next morning, and this is the really big part, a homeless person who's going through a dumpster came upon something very gruesome, a headless porso in a bag. And I want to get to this new surveillance footage from a parking lot in Encino because it appears to show a white SUV stopping right next to that dumpster. And the man driving gets out, opens the trunk, lifting a large black bag, appears to be heavy, walking it over to where the dumpster is. Now, apparently, someone in that parking lot took a picture of the license plate. And when police arrive at the Haskell home, that is when they find blood and evidence

that a murder has been committed. Now, if, in fact, this is Haskell. And we know that the body was dumped in that public dumpster. Why would he do that? Again, if it's him, why dump it in a public area like this? Yeah, I mean, the brazeness of it, right? That's what we're talking about, like hiring these laborers and doing this thing in the dumpster. By the way, if you look at the video of him, of whoever it is doing the dumpster,

it's broad daylight. There are cars coming and going from that parking lot. He didn't wait until the middle of the night for the cover of. darkness this is in the middle of the day there are cars there's one car goes right by him while the trunk lid is still open so it's so brazen and you're right he he seems to struggle getting it out of the car he goes into almost a squat position to be able to lift that thing up whatever it is we we believe it's the torso and he and he struggles with it because it's so heavy to get it into that dumpster so yeah the brazeness of it he pulls right in if you look at the video

he pulls right into the first spot he doesn't circle the the the the parking lot looking for that dumpster. He knows where he is. He knows the dumpster is there because he pulls in and it's the very first spot that he goes into, which luckily was open for him right next to the dumpster. He opens the gate of the dumpster, looks in it, then goes back to his car, which is only a few feet away. So this was, this was to me very brazen, very out in the open, very broad daylight, other cars pulling in and out of the parking lot. I mean, you know, my only thought is that he didn't do much planning with this. I mean, it was. It was, Whatever happened in that house, he certainly didn't plan it out.

He wasn't thinking about this for months, unless he's not that bright. Because if you did any kind of planning, you would not be doing, you would not be hiring day laborers to move body parts. You would not be dumping it in dumpster in broad daylight using your vehicle. So it leads me to believe that this was something that happened more on the spur of the moment without much planning. And let's be clear, even if there wasn't a ton of planning, he could still be charged with murder and face the death penalty. In the sense, because we always talk about first degree murder and premeditation, I'm trying to imagine, I'm assuming the worst for him, right? The worst kind of evidence, if they can show that was him, they could all link it back, would his best option to be say this was manslaughter, this was a spur of the moment thing, just because I deposited the bodies after doesn't mean that this was murder. per se. I mean, how many times have we covered cases before where somebody says they're actually

found not guilty of the murder, but they're found guilty of tampering with the body or, you know, or dismembering the body. I'm wondering if the evidence is really lining up for him to look so bad, he could say this wasn't a murder per se, but a spur of the moment killing. Yeah, I should clarify that, you know, on the legal side, because you and I know this, and I know this certainly because I just sat through as a juror who a murder one trial here in California, and I was the juror and I got two weeks ago was the judge was giving us instructions on that and I don't mean when I say spur of the moment I don't mean to say he didn't premeditate this wasn't premeditation because in the jury and standard jury instructions premeditation can happen in a moment it doesn't

take weeks it doesn't take hours sometimes premeditation legally can happen in a moment so so I don't mean to say that this is not premeditated murder but it just didn't seem like there was a whole lot of planning going into this if in fact he was doing this in this way And by the way, so they, I say that, but remember they have maybe potentially the license plate, they do, how important is it that you don't necessarily see him? It's not clear on that videotape that it's him. No, it's not, but they'll probably, if my guess is correct, they're probably running that video through some kind of enhancement process,

which takes a long time, even with today's technology, but they can enhance a video now. So you have your forensic teams back at the house doing their work. Yeah, I'm probably searching those dumpsters, any area dumpsters, landfills of other dumpsters, you know, where other dumpsters went. But yeah, I think that, I think they're enhancing that video. I think that the car, it's his car, probably nobody else drives that car. Yeah, I think that we are able to tie him to that car and to that body pretty well. You mentioned something that was interesting because, again, the parents' bodies have not been found.

They're still missing. He's charged with their murders. But it has been reported that the. LAPD's robbery homicide division, their detectives are searching, are searching trash bins and alleys that were close to where that first body was found, assumingly his wife, and they're using a cadaver sniffing dog. Walk us through what they might be doing. Well, I remember there was a recent case either in Connecticut or Rhode Island where a husband went to several dumpsters in a row and dumped. Brian Walsh. Ryan Walsh. Right. Allegedly. Allegedly. So I think that's, they're probably

thinking they may have something similar, where. you know, he put the torso in one place, he put the head in another place, arms and legs in a different place. So I think that they realize that they're probably in sequence, in close proximity to that dumpster. So they have a starting point. They're probably looking at, you know, circling that area and seeing how many dumpsters. And, you know, it's a fairly commercial shopping areas have a lot of dumpsters. So that's a lot of work to do. And then you have to figure out when it happened, the timeline, and whether or not those dumpsters were brought over to a landfill. And then you've got to get people over to the landfill to start searching the landfill because we've got three adult human beings

missing. So that's a lot of body parts if he dismembered all of them. I think we still have a car missing, one of the white SUVs still missing. So, you know, there's a lot to be found yet in this case. Walk me through what do you think they found at the house? Because again, the reporting indicates there was blood and evidence that the crime was committed there. How would they know that? What do you think they're looking for at the house? Well, as gruesome as it might sound, I think, You know, I mean, we've seen it before. Dismemorment often takes place in a tub or a shower or stall. Somewhere where the person doesn't, can limit the amount of blood that gets everywhere.

But you can't limit too much because dismembering a human body unless you're surgically skilled is a messy process. And so it leaves traces. It leaves traces in the drain. Even if you try to wash it off things, it leave blood traces. So I'm sure they found the after effects of. a dismemberment, which means blood fragment, bone fragments, tissue samples, blood, you know, in places. They may have even found the tools used to do this dismemberment because household tools are not made to dismembered body. So you often break something when you do it and use a second piece of equipment.

You use some gardening equipment or things like that. And so a lot of that is left behind or pieces of it are left behind. clean up some people that are not skilled at this and not plan well in advance. The cleanup is a very big challenge. And so the forensic teams are very good at going in there and finding what was left behind. And it sounds in this case like they found a lot. Now, at the time of this recording, my understanding is that the body that has been found with no head has not positively been identified as his wife. It seems like that's what's leading up to.

The parents' bodies have not been found. How tough would it be for prosecutors to prove this was murdered? The reason I say that is because not having bodies and prosecuting for murder can be a challenge at times, right? And I'm just thinking right now, the Robert Durst case in Texas, where he was accused of murdering his neighbor, Morris Black, there was no head found, and they couldn't determine if it was murder or if it was self-defense. and he was acquitted of the murder. So now I'm just trying to think right now, if you have a body where there's no head and then possibly they can't find the remains of the parents,

but he's still charged with all their murders. How tough is it for prosecutors to prove their case? Well, I mean, it's tough. What you have to do is the prosecutors rely on other things. So you have to rely on, you know, you bring family members in, the relationship wasn't in a good place. They used to fight whatever that circumstantial evidence is

because the physical evidence seems to be there. They're going to be able to identify that, torso through DNA. If it's her, they'll have her DNA from the house on a hairbrush or something else they got out of the house. They'll be able to match that DNA from that hairbrush day, for example, to the torso. If it's her and they'll make that match. So now you go, okay, who in this woman's life hated her enough to number one murderer and hated her even further enough to dismember her body? Because that's the next level of real hatred unless it's a professional I used to do the mafia in New York City in the 80s, and, you know, they dismembered bodies simply

to dispose of them. But this kind of disposal, this kind of dismemberment seems to be a hatred thing. So I think that you're looking at, looking at bringing other circumstantial evidence to say, you know, who else would have hated her enough to kill her, who had the means, motive, and opportunity to do this crime, and then if you bring in, you know, witness testimony saying, yeah, they used to fight and whatever that is. I'm not saying that the president's case, but that's what a prosecutor would have to bring in if they don't have the things that you're talking about.

I guess I'm just trying to say if they can't show how he killed them, right? Was it strangling? Was it shooting? Was it stabbing? Could it have been him acting in self-defense? And he panicked and put the, you know, disposed of the bodies? I'm just trying to wrap my head around because right now I'm just trying to make sense of this. Because look, does it look terrible for him?

Yes. But I'm always curious if the prosecution can't prove definitively how these people died, is that going to be tough for them? No, I don't think so. I mean, look, the statutes don't require the how of it. They don't even require the why of it. If I can just show you did the murder, you killed that person, oftentimes that's enough for a jury. I mean, in the case I just sat there was a juror, there was, the prosecution said the person was stamped to death. The defense said they were strangled. We didn't really know definitively either way, but the body was found, and definitely that person was murdered. So you know the murder took place. How it happened is not statutorily required. And I mean, you just have to prove that person did it. They were there. They had a motive. You know, they, motive isn't even required most of the time.

But, but if they had a motive, if they were present, if there, if there's DNA, you know, all of that thing. So I'm not sure that how the murder happened is, you know, is of paramount importance. You always love to have that. But how they carried it out, whether he strangled her and there's dismembered her, if he stabbed her and then dismembered her, sometimes you're just not going to know some of that stuff. And by the way, we've already talked about how there seems to be. so many witnesses. I mean, the people in the parking lot, whoever had the surveillance footage, the day laborers. Now it's coming out that a neighbor has come forward, that the night before Sam Haskell was arrested, her daughter heard a scream from his home, something

like, help, help, blow, and then she heard a car door slam and the screeching of tires and a car driving off. I'm sure that's going to be relevant for the prosecution's case. This seems to be adding up, though, Bobby, to a death penalty case, right, in the sense that they've also filed special circumstances because these murders happened altogether. Can you walk us through what that means when we're talking about special circumstances and the likelihood that he could be, if convicted, be put to death? Yeah. And again, that's the case I just said to as a jury. We had a murder with special circumstances. So in California, there's murder and then there's murder with special circumstances, which is required for the death penalty. And there's a number of different

special circumstance, the murder of a law enforcement officer, police officer, that's a special circumstance. Murder financial gain is a special circumstance who kills somebody for money. So murder multiple people, multiple victims at the same time, that's a special circumstance. So there are a number of different special circumstances that qualify you for the death penalty in California. Now that's a, it's really an academic exercise anyway, because the governor, many governors in this, including our current governor and as long back, as, as, as, in long history have said they're not going to apply the death penalty. So the death penalty, while it's still on the books in California, as a practical matter,

it's not. They're not going to execute people in California under this governor and under the last several governors. That's just a political policy that's been in place. But the prosecutors still can go for that, and they still can get somebody sentenced to death, whether that will ever be carried out is another question. But they can still go for special circumstances in this case. And that's that murder plus, so you call it murder.

Plus, and then you've got to prove what that special circumstance under the statute is present. I'm curious about something else that might be specific to California, maybe specific to that courtroom or the judge. When Haskell was entered into court, the judge allowed a photographer that said that you couldn't take any pictures of Haskell's face. I haven't heard that before. So the pictures that are surfacing, you just see literally like his neck down or his torso down. He's wearing the, I guess it's the suicide prevention vest. but you don't see his face. Why would the judge rule that?

You know, that was bizarre to me, too. I looked at that video and you can kind of see him from the neck down. It's bizarre, particularly in this case, because there's already coverage out there. Haskell had apparently a fairly active social media life. I've seen either TikTok videos or Instagram stories where he's out, he's out talking in his car. He does a lot of videos from his car, and he's talking and he's rambling. And some of it is a little bizarre. So everybody knows what he looks at.

like. There's no, there's no question about what he looks like. We've seen him on his own social media feeds that the media is now putting out there. And so, and people can go to the internet and see him. I wonder why the judge would do that. It didn't, it kind of struck me as a little bizarre, but judges have a lot of discretion in their individual courtrooms about what they allow and what they don't allow. So in this case, I guess, because it's in the very preliminary stages of charging him, you know, and charges always can get dismissed. They can get, you know, put off or they can get downgraded or whatever, and he doesn't want him subject to that kind of negative publicity. But like I said, I've seen his face, I've heard

his voice, I've seen his TikToks or his Instagram stories, whatever they are, his social media ramblings. I know what this guy looks like. It's not a big mystery. But in this case, the judge decided he didn't want him seen in that. Maybe, you know, a lot of times, you know, when you see somebody in prison garb or whatever, they can say it prejudices the public who may ultimately be this guy's jury you know i don't know that's fair that's fair look uh haskell he's currently being held without bail faced life in prison potentially that the death penalty uh i believe he has an arraignment set for december 8th um i should tell you as i mentioned the kids who were in the home they were taken away they were uh they're now i believe in the custody of the state i think

they're going to figure out who they can stay with but i'll leave everybody with this this is a statement from district attorney george gascon and he said uh these shocking and and gruesome crimes have sent shockwaves to our community. We stand with the victim's loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time and we'll do everything in our power to ensure justice is served. Bobby Chaconne, thank you so much for talking about this, sir. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.